Key Largo, Montego, baby why don't we go...

We're heading to the beach! We'll be down at Seacrest Beach (near Panama City, FL) for Memorial Day weekend with some friends. We hope everyone has a great holiday weekend and we'll be in touch soon!

Logan :)

68 Miles on a Bike = Sore Butt

First real post! Yesterday I rode in the Atlanta running of the Tour de Cure, a bicycle ride fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association. You could choose to ride 100 km, 50 km, 25 km, or an 8 mile fun ride. I chose to ride the 100 km (62.1 miles) route with a team from work. Our team raised over $10,000 in support of the ADA. Many thanks to those who supported me! The group of guys I ride with weekly participated in the 50k and had a blast as well.



The first 10 miles were ridden Tour de France style with a huge peloton of probably 60-70 riders. The draft is pretty surreal with that many people and we averaged close to 27 mph. At one point the people in front slowed to navigate a turn, the whole group compressed, and two guys touched wheels with one wrecking pretty hard. Luckily he didn't suffer any major injuries. This happened a few riders behind me and a few riders in front of my boss. We both commented later in the day that we had experienced our own personal Tour de France moment of chaos.

Shortly after the wreck we reached a four lane highway and figured we had missed a turn some ways back. This resulted in a six mile detour, so at the end of the day we totaled 68.3 miles instead of 62.1.

The remaining miles were fairly uneventful. My boss and I rode together for the rest of the day, stopping periodically at the provided rest stops (port-a-potties, water, powerade, fruit). A friend of Logan's mom even found me on the course and we chatted for a few miles.




Logan played the part of support car driver and photographer extroidinaire. She hung around the start finish/area with our friends and took pictures of their husbands who rode the 50k.

Once they were done she drove the car out and took pictures of my boss and I on the course. Most of the pictures are her work.



The next bike challenge is the Bike MS: Cox Atlanta Ride, a two day 150-mile fundraiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society - Georgia chapter. Maybe I'll be used to the bike seat by then.

Complete photo album:

080518 Tour De Cure

~Andrew

Welcome to the BickelBlog!

Logan came up with the idea of starting a blog to chronicle the events in our life and let our family and friends read about it too. We brainstormed for a few days to come up with a theme, and eventually settled on our many many hobbies. For those that knew me before we got married, this should be self explanatory. There are so many things to enjoy in life, and I can never choose to focus on just one, or two, or three... Logan and I share many common interests and have added lots of new ones since we've been married. We'd love to hear your thoughts, so please leave comments. Welcome to the BickelBlog!

~Andrew